Video Portfolios and 'Photography'

After a fun video shoot yesterday the subject of video portfolios came up and something I wasn't aware of was casting directors often require or prefer video portfolios of potential models, so do models generally have video portfolios? or is it something quite rare?

I know in the adult sector went through a phase of tacky showreels which were very basic yet still were popular for a while (I don't see many new ones these days)

My experience yesterday was a lot of fun and each shot we did was (pardon my latest cliche) more like moving photos, having done a lot of research on video & film I am in awe at a lot of movie's 'Photographers' where they have to consider a lot more than that 1 shot & scene, anticiapting the photo sequence etc.

When I started out I refused to shoot video as I was a photographer, ended up having to do it or face being replaced, but plodded on for years treating the two as very seperate things, until the Canon 5D MkII inspired me to experiment more, I fookin love it now! but my ignorance of keeping the 2 seperate for years has cost me valuable experience.

My point if I have one, are the two fields of movies & photography merging closer together?

Most castings i have done for adverts etc have involved some form of acting/role play although I have never been asked to take anything but photographic.

If i did have to take a video along I guess I would take a video of work i had done, a cv really.

I have been suprised at the amount of acting I have had to do to be honest. So as modeling and acting pretty much go hand in hand i think that the fields of movies and photography are already pretty close.

And there could be well a market for proffesional models for a moving portfolio/cv.

I don't know how much interest this thread will attract as Simon doesn't seem to be one of the "forum darlings" and never seems to get much of a mention in any of the "who would you want to work with/ rub my back and I'll rub yours" type threads. Simon is however, the most dedicated and technically competant (accross the genres) photographer/videographer I know and is the guy I go to when I need advice on anything photographic or video related.

This is a fantastic piece of work in its own right, and production of a piece to this standard would be well beyond what most of us on here could achieve.

The topic of the thread aside, I think Simon and Katy have produced an excellent piece of work here.

I tend to be a modest man, but then I do have a lot to be modest about.

Quote from Grez
I have been suprised at the amount of acting I have had to do to be honest. So as modeling and acting pretty much go hand in hand i think that the fields of movies and photography are already pretty close.

Brings a good point actually from the model perspective, the internet certainly demanded that models ended up becoming model slash performers and in my field of work I could not book models that didn't do video which sucked as I missed out on some fantastic models.

I don't know how much interest this thread will attract as Simon doesn't seem to be one of the "forum darlings" and never seems to get much of a mention in any of the "who would you want to work with/ rub my back and I'll rub yours" type threads. Simon is however, the most dedicated and technically competant (accross the genres) photographer/videographer I know and is the guy I go to when I need advice on anything photographic or video related.

This is a fantastic piece of work in its own right, and production of a piece to this standard would be well beyond what most of us on here could achieve.

The topic of the thread aside, I think Simon and Katy have produced an excellent piece of work here.

Wow! high praise indeed thanks Iain, though I think I have learnt more from you than you have from me, or is this to prevent me posting the Portugal humiliation pics (and vid!) ?

I don't know how much interest this thread will attract as Simon doesn't seem to be one of the "forum darlings" and never seems to get much of a mention in any of the "who would you want to work with/ rub my back and I'll rub yours" type threads. Simon is however, the most dedicated and technically competant (accross the genres) photographer/videographer I know and is the guy I go to when I need advice on anything photographic or video related.

This is a fantastic piece of work in its own right, and production of a piece to this standard would be well beyond what most of us on here could achieve.

The topic of the thread aside, I think Simon and Katy have produced an excellent piece of work here.

Well Said,the video is super and produced to such a high standard.Also I must add Simon is a great guy and both times I have worked with him he has been helpful and honest.

Quote from SimonD
My point if I have one, are the two fields of movies & photography merging closer together?

Reading magazines like 'Photo Professional' and 'Professional Photographer', the latest buzzword seems to be "convergence". The convergence between still photography and video. Many professionals seem to be now using the new technology available to incorporate video into their product offering.

I shot an artsy conceptual video piece a week ago (it was a lot of fun and I think we got some good stuff, but the photographer says it'll take a few months to put together) - I've seen a few similar pieces recently, and I suspect that as video gets more integrated with dSLRs there will be more demand for art models to shoot experimental concepts for amateurs, just as art models often do today with stills. I think that in the amateur artsy market (for want of a better phrase) there will be more call for video work in the future as people experiment with new equipment. That will probably go hand in hand with an increase in moving portfolios/showreels.

Well that's my best guess anyway. Time will tell.

"The poetic, the scientific, the erotic - why should the imagination care which master it serves?" - Ian McEwan

The biggest problem with videos like this is that generally the 'royalty free' music is free because it isn't good.You can use soundtrack generator programs or steal non-royalty free music, but the soundtrack on this type of video is always difficult (unless you compose and play your own music).

In an ideal world (where you could license music for the soundtrack) I think that this particular video would have suited The Beatles 'Norwegian Wood' or similar ....

Like any dealer he was watching for the card that is so high and wild he'll never need to deal another...

Quote from IainT
Simon doesn't seem to be one of the "forum darlings" and never seems to get much of a mention in any of the "who would you want to work with/ rub my back and I'll rub yours" type threads.